Quarantines may be justified

[Thomas Shaddack]

On Wed, 30 Apr 2003, Harmon Seaver wrote:
>    "merely annoy"? Excessive noise, or smoke, or chemical pollutants are not
> mere annoyances, they are detrimental to health and safety and are physical
> assaults, and anyone has a moral right, at least, to use force to protect
> themselves from such.

IMHO, long-term psychical stress, so common in raging capitalism with
nonexistent or weak safety nets - worrying about keeping/losing/finding
job, fear of a longer-term illness that would cause you to lose job and
medical insurance - has much worse effect than occassional exposure to low
levels of chemical contaminations or not-really-that-loud[1] sounds.

We often forget about psychological stress, resulting from the quest for
higher and higher "effectivity" and other factors of Holy Capitalism, when
evaluating situations. Communism was nothing starry, but when you kept
your mouth shut up, you had time for yourself, for your family. My dad was
"nationalizing" electronics parts for me, from his workplace, which helped
(or maybe caused) me to learn electronics. Many things were available
without having to pay for them, which lowered barriers to entry. Hightech
books were cheaper. Schools had clubs for students with interests -
chemistry, electronics, computers - the Regime needed to breed the next
generation of skilled workers. It had a lot of drawbacks as well - lack of
material wealth was the most notable one - but it wasn't overly difficult
to partially compensate; you just had to be able to do things yourself.
>From sewing clothes - if you were dissatisfied with what was available in
stores, you got cloth and a sewing machine and made something yourself -
to electronics. If you were able to repair things - TVs,
electroinstallations, plumbing - you were widely in demand and you had
privileged access to scarce goods[2] for exchange for your services.
Virtually everyone was a member of this "gray" economy; what you knew was
more important for your real social position than what you owned. People
were more creative - it was making life more comfortable. These skills are
vanishing as more and more people rely on money than on their own
improvisation skills instead. The cities were gray and dull - but I
sometimes doubt if a genuine grayness wasn't better than faked and empty
cheery colors of mass-produced advertising flooding the cities now. People
had time to read books; today they usually return from the job late, too
tired for anything more challenging than plopping down in front of a TV.
The unhappiness and resulting escapism mirrors in increased demand for
drugs and amusement industry, quick and low-efforts ways to "get out".
There was escapism before as well - but it was generally more creative;
cottaging was very common, together with numerous kinds of other hobbies.
The change from active to passive leisure activities, the turn from doing
to consuming, disturbs me a lot.</RANT>

Remarkable percentage of local population thinks fondly about the Old Days
where there was no rat-race, when you didn't live in fear you will get a
pink slip, when you didn't have to worry about day to day income. Easy
availability of material wealth or the freedom to travel has low relevance
when you can't afford it, nor when you have no time and energy to actually
enjoy it.

And the pace is increasing. We are all the galleymen, rowing for the
corporations owning increasing chunks of our time, and their drums get
faster every year.

The Revolution happened, the situation changed. I want to believe it is a
good thing. But by far not every change was good. The local population is
much more stressed out now...


[1] A jet plane taking off next to you is a really-that-loud sound. A car
stereo isn't.

[2] back then, there were periods of scarcity of various goods. Once it
was toilet paper. Naturally, jokes appeared. Hope I translated the
following sample correctly:
A man meets his friend on the street. His friend carries two bags full of
rolls of toilet paper.
"Where did you buy them?"
"I didn't buy them. I got them from dry cleaning."